Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1887-02-11
Z. Y.
SC He & Y q Il, 1897
scme Philosophical spara ions ~ to
- IS haf II Afar Esril.g Forth. as

Is ~ pEStbf AittS W w iAlSs
81 the pen hnlrishes SO easily DIVA t}ls.
tail5of the z. / The years hay e so irsastoW
RIM away very fast since 1850, gang
down hill to the end al the celi NTH In |
fourteen short years more the DrtWefs5
WILDE trying, in It's faithfnlaes!s To the
twentieth centnry,.to keep ont#of its
columns the fucetise of the nineteenth.
The nineteenth century, OF which we
are proud now, will be Analysed and
criticised and condemned as we now
condescend to talk about the 81 ghteenth.
On the day that 1901 comes In, the
same able writer's who the day before,
in the press, used the term nineteenth
century'as if it were1a kind Of tlnalT
achievement in itself will turn on 1t III
"a patronizing manner. They will speak
about the twentieth century ifthey had
made 1t, and that it must necessarily
excel all the others. They seem Il great
many years, 1897, do they note They
are really only little fragment Of time,
which has dignity only from the fact
that we are adding to it. 1t is.an old
concest we have of it. Looked at III
one way, it is u respectable date, but
how long shall we be able to add to il
and keep it going in the$worldg There
have been several attempts at a contin-
nors date, but they have all broken
down. How long shall we keep up
ours? 1t is {; pity for scientific ptIr-
poses that we could not have had uni
,versaHy, as the Hebrews have, Il con-
tinuous date. Our breaking time in two
<in this way causes immense historical
confusion, leads to an unjust estimate
.of the past, and adds to our conceit.
1T gives the impression that the his
torical stream is not continuous; in
deed, we absurdly try to make it run
both ways from what we call the yea1
i. Hence much of the theological diff
culty in making people feel that the
New Dispensation is actually a coutin-
uation of the Old Dispensation. We
begin with our and run it up forward,
with All increasing sense Of power.
And we turn about and cast it up back
ward for the ancient nations, endeayor.
ing to run the civilizations Of antiquity
into the ground somewhere. 1t gives
false impression-if we may say it, !;
s''petering OUT appearance to the ole
nations Take the Egyptians, for ex
ample. They seem to be wasting away
in time toward us, losing year afte
year instead of gaining. We know, in
deed, but we have to learn it painfully
that the Egyptians did not live back
ward in this way. It is. of course, ab
surd to suppose that Menes, when h
came to his throne in Memphis, date
his order to dig the first canal 1904, &C
cording to Mar,ette, or 1928 according t.
Bunsen. or 2700 according to Wilkin
son, or whatever it was, and that ever
year thereafter he dropped one year
5OO3, 1922, $500, and so on. And We
thi, il, the way it appears to our minds
with our queer chronology. Looked a
honestly, it il not much Of date, thi
1887. Nor is it new. The Pharao
who used it--and no one knows wha
Pharaoh it H:as-no doubt WAS consc
o1,s that it had been used before hin
,aud he regarded it rs merely the begir
ming Of the years that Egypt would pill
:upiu increasing glory. The Pharao
who wrote 1897 may have had som
conceit in the figures, but it w1s'a chea
pride. The vain attempt OF the Pha
aohs in this direction ought to make I
modest of eur little achievement in II
way of date. All the people before =,
have doubtless battered themselves tn;
their eras would endure as long rs II
world lasts. 49,, 49,. 49,.
We are interested in this year 1873
showever-as the Court was about to s:
when it interrupted itself-not becau
it is centennial year, or to specula
whether it will be a year of war,
earthquake, or droughts, but to ST
whether tits going to be y good year +
h.realism'' in fiction, or:whether Il
,@.idealists'' will begin to get an innin
Tt is such II seesaw world that one G;
only keep his head by taking 10,
historical perspective, and noting wh
tales they are that the race cares
preserve through all the ages. Y
want to stick to facts, but there are
lmany sorts OF facts, material and il
material, and human nature is doub]
sand men are perverse. They are
'unreasonably interested, even in tt
scientific age, in the Arabian Nights
1t is absurd that a camel-driver shoJ
rise to marry the daughter Of the Ora
A. Vizier, and become Grand VRier hi
self, and rule ever the kingdom.
n order to be truesso life he should ha
i continued to be d acaluel-driver till
camel died, and every thing we
wrong with him, and he married
i woman who drank, and atook to h
heesh, and ended as a beggar. Il
much better for II us to read abe
this sort Of camel drive than, the 9th
After all, the phil sophers are naer.
quarreliing about q definition. II is
necessary to satisfy in fiction the higl
aspirations OF the mind as Its 10y
tendencies ..hi Oh slife'' is rs real, 4
H Il B admit, as slow life. & urity md !,
tue; are Just as leal as their npposi
though not 90 common and I
VI. steady contempt ation Of them H. ttict
is more likely to bes ennob bling than
con enlplatipn Of the inferii Tor and
vulgar. 1t ii not y new notion In,
81 world, but il Isl 4 queer one that
base and unpleasant in life are m
.real than the pure and the agreeal
IS it more necessary for the good
mankind that the form r should
para.led rather than the latter9 g
u, al sC fotio1iist
the year ~ not exagger.te
l5 ,afl III max ii TIE csl0d seem iInp0ssil